


Spores and Snowflakes

by strangeallure



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe - College/University, Established Relationship, Fluff, Long Live Feedback Comment Project, M/M, One Shot, Pre-Canon, Snowball Fight, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 11:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21445471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangeallure/pseuds/strangeallure
Summary: Paul's experiment fails, Hugh helps him take his mind off of things.
Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets
Comments: 14
Kudos: 27





	Spores and Snowflakes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Krista ♥

“I was so sure this would work,” Paul muttered to himself as he cleaned the sample tray. Usually, he’d be eager to set up another one, try culturing his spores in a different substratum, but this time, he was almost glad he’d only booked the lab until ten and didn’t have time for another attempt.

“Bad luck with your experiment?”

Paul jumped. Hugh’s voice was close behind him, although Paul hadn’t heard him come in.

“Really, really bad luck.” He made a face and put the sample dish in his hand down, turning around to look at Hugh, who was smiling at him, his face still reddened from the cold outside. He wore a ridiculously thick winter coat, now unbuttoned, and held a fluffy scarf and hat in one hand. The curls of his hair were a little disheveled, and Paul registered absently that he looked kind of adorable.

Generally speaking, an experiment failing was much more likely to annoy Paul, maybe even make him angry, but this time, he felt something more like sadness.

The spores had been propagating so well in the new solution, forming bioluminescent clusters that were strange and stunning, making the whole tray glow. And then, about an hour ago, everything had changed, the luminescence had started to fade and before Paul could figure out what had gone wrong, before he could try and fix it, all of his cell cultures had died, leaving behind a bunch of black blobs swimming in a gelatinous mass.

He’d have to comb through the data later, find out what happened exactly, but no matter what, it was a major setback. Right now, he mostly felt tired.

Hugh touched his arm and looked over his shoulder. “Are these the beauties you showed me earlier?”

_Oh yeah_, Paul almost forgot that he’d sent Hugh a photo of the whole tray lit up in white and blue. He’d been so sure it would work this time.

“What’s left of them.” He shrugged. “Better luck next time.”

Hugh’s hand was still on his arm and gave it a light squeeze. “I’ll help you clean up.”

Paul didn’t always like other people in his lab – more often than not, they only got in his way – but with Hugh, it was easy to find a rhythm and finish up the work more quickly.

Soon, they put on their hats and wrapped themselves up in their coats and scarves before going out into the cold winter night.

The campus looked like it had been coated in frosting, and the blue light of the streetlamps on the pristine white snow reminded Paul of the beautiful glow he had incited in his spores.

“It’s stupid to be upset about this,” Paul said, more to himself than to Hugh, his breath making white puffs of air appear before his face. “Trial and error – that is literally the scientific method.”

Even under the woolly hat and oversized scarf, he could see Hugh’s soft smile. “Caring about your work isn’t stupid,” he said.

“But they’re just spores,” Paul replied, although it didn’t feel entirely true.

“You and Straal have been trying to figure this out for months,” Hugh pointed out. “And you got_ this close,_” he held up his thumb and index finger, “to working it out tonight.”

Hugh was right. Paul nodded with a sigh and kept walking. He would have loved to have figured this out while Justin was away for the weekend.

Apropos nothing, Hugh added, “I was really looking forward to riding that high with you tonight.”

Paul sputtered. “What?”

“Every time you ace a test, I reap the benefits. I thought with an actual scientific breakthrough under your belt, you’d truly rock my world.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Probably after calling Straal to gloat, but still.”

That made Paul laugh. Hugh knew him pretty well, he had to admit.

“So that’s why you braved the cold to pick me up from the lab.” He pointed a finger at Hugh, who really didn’t like the current weather. Come to think of it, tonight was maybe the first time he hadn’t loudly complained about it. “And you’re probably right. About Straal, I mean.” Paul loved Justin, but part of why their friendship worked so well was that they spurred each other on, that they could be competitive and rub their successes in each other’s faces without either of them holding a grudge. Figuring this spore thing out without Straal would basically have earned Paul eternal bragging rights.

“I have an idea,” Hugh said with a sly smile. “Something to get your mind off of this, get your blood pumping.”

They were already crossing the quad in front of their dorms, so Paul was pretty sure where this was going. He certainly wasn’t opposed.

“Oh, really?” He turned around with a faux-innocent smile.

And got hit by a snowball.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he grumbled, feeling a smile spread on his face in spite of himself.

Hugh was crouched down, already forming the next ball with both hands. This could not stand.

Paul quickly took a handful of snow and threw it in Hugh’s face before running behind the nearest bushes for cover.

“No fair,” Hugh yelled, but Paul was busy making a few snow balls in a row, trying to build up a small store of ammunition.

“You started this!” he shouted from his hide-out, his voice cutting loud and clear through the night air.

Hugh mounted an attack, carrying a few snowballs in the crook of his arm. Fortunately for Paul, this cost him agility, and Paul managed to fend him off with a salvo. Four balls in a row. His entire stock.

Paul dove back behind the shrubs to make some more, the quick pulse of his blood warming the cold flesh of his cheeks, feeling himself grin as he hollered taunts in Hugh’s direction. He hadn’t been in a snowball fight since middle school. Clearly, that had been a mistake.

Suddenly, there was a pull at Paul’s collar and an icy-cold sensation running down his back, making his whole body shudder. Hugh stuffing a load of snow right down the back of his shirt. Unbelievable. Paul tried to turn around, but his foot got stuck in some roots beneath the snow, sending him flailing.

“Foul!” he cried as he fell to the ground. “I can’t believe you’d sneak up on me like this,” he wheezed, feeling his chest heave with deep breaths of crisp air.

Hugh was standing over him, laughing big and bright. “All is fair …” he said and held out his hand to help Paul up.

“Truce?” he asked.

“Never,” Paul shouted and pulled Hugh down into the snow with him. Hugh yelped indignantly and it made Paul feel a small jolt of satisfaction. He rolled himself over with less grace than he would have liked, but it got his body halfway on top of Hugh, so Paul counted it as a win.

Smiling down, he could see a sheen of sweat on Hugh’s skin and a warm gleam in his eyes. The frosty tips of their noses were almost touching and their panted, out-of-air breaths mingled. Paul's failed experiment had been entirely forgotten.

“You’re going to pay for this,” he whispered, an intimate kind of earnestness creeping into his voice before he leaned down and kissed Hugh hard, cold lips and hot tongues.

Hugh pulled away just long enough to murmur a cocky, “Looking forward to it,” against Paul’s lips before surging up for another deep kiss.

Much too soon, Hugh started pushing at his shoulders.

“My butt is freezing off,” he complained, but there was a fond note in his voice. He got up and wiped snow off his coat before extending his hand. This time, Paul let himself be pulled up.

He patted some snow off of himself, and then gave Hugh a playful slap on the butt.

“Can’t have that,” he said with a smile and slung his arm around Hugh's back, guiding him towards the entrance of their building.

Luckily, he had plenty of ideas to help them keep warm.

**Author's Note:**

> Like all my stories, this is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), whose goal is to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites:
> 
> **Feedback**: short comments, long comments, questions, constructive criticism, "<3" as extra kudos, reader-reader interaction
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